1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a handwritten information input apparatus adapted for use in an electronic notebook or the like where characters can be inputted by handwriting with a pen on a specific plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 17 shows an exemplary constitution of a conventional handwritten information input apparatus known heretofore. This apparatus basically consists of an LCD (liquid crystal display) unit and a tablet disposed thereon, wherein a locus traced by a pen is detected from the tablet and, after the locus thus detected is identified by pattern recognition, the character obtained as a result of such recognition is displayed on the LCD unit. More specifically, when a character is inputted by handwriting with an unshown pen in a square 103a on a letter plate 103, the character is identified by pattern recognition and then is displayed in the square 103a. If a write button 102c is touched with the pen when a proper character has been obtained by such pattern recognition, the character in the square 103a is then displayed on a page plate 101. Such display is performed at the position of a cursor 104.
FIG. 17A illustrates an example where characters "BLACK" are displayed on the page plate 101. Suppose now that, in this state, a desired character (character row) is to be deleted. First the pen is brought into touch with a delete button 102b and then is dragged on the character row to be deleted ("LAC" in this example), whereby the character row is displayed with a reversed image as shown in FIG. 17B. After the pen is dragged from one desired character to another desired character, the pen is released upward from the page plate 101, so that the character row is deleted as shown in FIG. 17C.
Now a description will be given on an operation of partially replacing the characters, which are being displayed on the page plate 101, with other characters. In this case, first the character row to be replaced is deleted as mentioned above. After completion of the deletion, a handwrite button 102a is touched with the pen to switch the operation to a character handwrite mode. As shown in FIG. 17C, the cursor 104 is left positionally unchanged despite deletion of the character row. When another character is to be inserted between the characters "B" and "K" in this state, the cursor 104 is shifted to the position between "B" and "K". (FIG. 18A) This shift is realized by touching the space between "B" and "K" with the pen. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 18B, characters to be inserted (e.g., "A" and "N") are written in the squares 103 on the letter plate 103. And if the write button 102c is touched with the pen when the characters "A" and "N" have been displayed after being correctly identified by pattern recognition, the characters "A" and "N" are inserted at the position of the cursor 104 as shown in FIG. 18C.
In the conventional handwritten information input apparatus, as described above, individually different manipulations are necessary to perform deletion, insertion and correction of characters to eventually raise a problem of low operational efficiency.